Alumni Giving Increases 7 Percent to More Than $12 Billion, Study Says

Alumni gave $12.15 billion, or 26 percent of the $46.73 billion raised by all colleges and universities in the United States, according to a new study.

Alumni giving was up 6.9 percent from the previous year, according to the new figures from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

The strong growth in giving was driven at least in part by massive campaigns, along with improved fundraising software that keeps more alumni within reach.

For example, the University of Michigan and Harvard University broke records with the help of “an army of volunteers,” digital-first campaigns, and smaller gifts, according to the report. Although those institutions also heavily relied on nonalumni donations, the trend is that alumni are becoming increasingly receptive to giving for endowment growth, infrastructure, athletic programs, and small departments.

A small group of elite colleges — think Notre Dame, Duke, and Yale — took the largest portions of total giving, according to a previous study of overall giving to private colleges and universities.

The report said researchers did not include gifts that alumni may have made from a donor-advised fund or family foundation.

Here are more findings from the study:

• “Other” organizations, including religious orders, fundraising entities like United Ways, and donor-advised funds, increased their support of colleges by nearly 11 percent.
• Giving by foundations rose just over 4 percent. About 40 percent of that money came from family foundations.
• Support by corporations declined by 0.5 percent.